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To analyze whether face-to-face education before colonoscopy improves the quality of bowel preparation and increases the detection of adenomas.A retrospective cross-sectional study of adult patients with colorectal polyps identified by colonoscopy as outpatients was performed. The patients underwent an added colonoscopy inpatient for resection of colorectal polyps. As outpatients, we gave the patients written bowel preparation instructions; however, when they were inpatients, we supplied face-to-face education. We analyzed the data from the two colonoscopies of the same group of patients out- and in-patients, including the quality of the intestinal preparation, the time to reach the ileocecal region, and the detection of adenomas.A total of 260 patients {age 63 [56, 68] years old, male/female (169/91)} were retrospectively included in our study. Two hundred fifty-two patients with a total of 685 adenomas were detected, 94 patients with 179 adenomas overlooked in the first colonoscopy. The BBPS Score during inpatient was higher than that during outpatient, {9 [8, 9] vs. 7 [6, 9]}, P0.05, the Bubble Score during inpatient was lower than that during outpatient [0 (0.00, 0.00) vs. 0 (0.00, 1.00)], P0.05. The time to reach the ileocecal region during inpatient is shorter than that during outpatient {6 [5, 9] vs. 7.5 [5, 11] min}, P0.05. Poor bowel preparation, flat adenoma morphology, and adenoma diameter lower than 5mm were related adenoma misdiagnoses, P0.05.Face-to-face patient education can improve the quality of bowel preparation, then shorten the time to reach the ileocecal region, and increase detection of colorectal adenomas.

Developing superabsorbents for efficiently separating immiscible oil-water mixtures and oil-water emulsions are highly desirable for addressing oily wastewater pollution problems, but it remains a challenge. Ultralight nanofibrous aerogels (NFAs) with unique wetting properties show great potential in oily wastewater treatment. In this study, a facile and efficient method for producing hierarchical porous structured NFAs with hydrophobicity for high efficiency oil-water separation was developed. The synthesis included three steps: wet electrospinning, freeze drying, and in situ polymerization. The obtained NFA demonstrated outstanding oil absorption capacity toward numerous oils and organic solvents, as well as efficient surfactant-stabilized water-in-oil emulsion separation with high separation flux and excellent separation efficiency. Furthermore, these NFAs displayed excellent corrosion resistance and outstanding recoverability. We assume that the resultant NFAs fabricated by this facile strategy are highly promising as ideal oil absorbents for practical oily wastewater treatment under harsh conditions.

Unreasonable human activities may cause the accumulation of heavy metals (HMs) in the agricultural soil, which will ultimately threaten the quality of soil environment, the safety of agricultural products, and human health. Therefore, the accumulation characteristics, potential sources, and health risks of HMs in agricultural soils in China’s subtropical regions were investigated. The mean Hg, Cu, Zn, Pb, and Cd concentrations of agricultural soil in Jinhua City have exceeded the corresponding background values of Zhejiang Province, while the mean concentrations of determined 8 HMs were less than their corresponding risk-screening values for soil contamination of agricultural land in China. The spatial distribution of As, Cr, Ni, Cu, and Pb were generally distributed in large patches, and Hg, Zn, and Cd were generally sporadically distributed. A positive definite matrix factor analysis (PMF) model had better performance than an absolute principal component–multiple linear regression (APCS-MLR) model in the identification of major sources of soil HMs, as it revealed higher R2 value (0.81–0.99) and lower prediction error (−0.93–0.25%). The noncarcinogenic risks (HI) of the 8 HMs to adults and children were within the acceptable range, while the carcinogenic risk (RI) of children has exceeded the safety threshold, which needs to be addressed by relevant departments. The PMF based human health risk assessment model indicated that industrial sources contributed the highest risk to HI (32.92% and 30.47%) and RI (60.74% and 61.5%) for adults and children, followed by agricultural sources (21.34%, 29.31% and 32.94% 33.19%). Therefore, integrated environmental management should be implemented to control and reduce the accumulation of soil HMs from agricultural and industrial sources.

Heavy metal (HM) accumulation in farmland soil can be transferred to the human body through the food chain, posing a serious threat to human health. Exploring the environmental risk and safe utilization zoning of soil HMs in farmland can provide the basis for the formulation of effective control strategies. Soil samples from typical subtropical farmland were collected in Jinhua City and analyzed for HMs (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn). The objective of this study was to explore the spatial distribution and environmental risk of soil HMs, and then divide the safe utilization area of soil HMs of farmland in Jinhua City. The results showed that the mean concentrations of soil HMs were, in descending order: Zn (76.05 mg kg−1) &gt, Cr (36.73 mg kg−1) &gt, Pb (32.48 mg kg−1) &gt, Cu (18.60 mg kg−1) &gt, Ni (11.95 mg kg−1) &gt, As (6.37 mg kg−1) &gt, Cd (0.18 mg kg−1) &gt, Hg (0.11 mg kg−1), and all determined soil HMs did not exceed the risk screening values for soil contamination of agricultural land of China. The fitted semi-variogram showed that the spatial autocorrelation of Cd, Hg, Pb, and Zn was weak, with island-shaped distribution, while As, Cr, Cu, and Ni had medium spatial autocorrelation, with strip-shaped and island-shaped distribution. The hot spot analysis and environmental risk probability showed that the environmental risks of As, Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, and Cu were relatively high, whereas those of Cr, Hg, and Ni were relatively low. Safe utilization zones and basic safe utilization zones accounted for 89.35% and 8.58% of the total farmland area in Jinhua, respectively, and only a small part of the farmland soil was at risk of use.

Purpose The paper aims to provide a facile approach to the synthesis of polyurethane–silica nanocomposites by introducing self-made aqueous silica sols with different particle sizes into polyurethane materials. This paper investigates the effects of the silica nanoparticles on the polyester polyol, as well as the physical properties and transmittance of the hybrid polyurethane coatings. Design/methodology/approach Colloidal silica particles of different sizes were obtained using a sol–gel process and were then embedded into polyester polyol by in-situ polymerization. These polyester polyol–silica resins were synthesized using an azeotrope process, using xylene to remove the water generated in the system and present in the dispersion medium for the colloidal silica. The polyester polyol–silica resins were further cured using isocyanate trimers to form polyurethane–silica hybrid films. Findings The paper observed that the viscosity of the polyester polyol–silica nanocomposite resins increased and their appearance changed from transparent to ivory white as the particle size of the added silica was increased. It was found that increasing the hydroxyl content of the silica improved the film transmittance in the visible light region. However, the transmittance decreased sharply once the diameter of the silica particles reached 100 nm. Research limitations/implications Because of the limitation of experimental conditions, some performances have not been tested. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to conduct further tests. Practical implications The paper provides a method of preparing hybrid polyurethane film by using silica; the results indicate that the introduction of nano-silica can improve the wear resistance and glass transition temperature of polyurethane coatings. Originality/value The results obtained in this study will be extremely useful to enhance the understanding of organic–inorganic hybrid materials.

For a polarization sensitive array (PSA) composed of electromagnetic vector sensors (EMVSs), all component-antennas of an EMVS are spatially collocated at a same location in the PSA, and mutual coupling introduced has an adverse effect on parameter estimation. The mutual coupling is not only among antennas in adjacent elements, namely, inter-element coupling (IEC), but also among component-antennas which are collocated to give an EMVS [namely inter-polarization coupling (IPC)]. In existing array design, component-antennas of each EMVS are spatially separated into different elements for IPC reduction, and then the spacing between EMVSs is increased for IEC reduction. However, such designed arrays are usually implemented as 2-D arrays which are large compared with linear arrays, and provide only ${O}({N})$ degrees of freedom (DOFs) with ${N}$ antennas. To overcome such problems, this paper proposes two kinds of spatially separated augmented nested vector-sensor arrays (SS-ANVSAs), which are linear arrays, can reduce both IEC and IPC, and provide ${O}({N}^{2})$ DOFs with ${N}$ antennas. Specifically, we introduce a scalar-sensor array and propose a sparse scalar-sensor array for IEC reduction, and then propose the SS-ANVSAs by restricting physical space and EMVSs’ number for IPC reduction. Theoretical analysis and simulation results are given to illustrate the superior performance of the SS-ANVSAs.

Chrysotile asbestos has excellent physical and chemical properties, but its high biotoxicity is very damaging to human health, due to its durability, high aspect ratio, and the exist of iron. By simple chemical treatment of chrysotile asbestos, silicon oxide nanofibers rich in hydroxyl groups on the surface can be prepared. In this study, we synthesized a series of polyurethane/silicon oxide nano-composite coatings with special performance following a blending method that introduced silicon oxide nanofibers into polyurethane. Measurement results revealed that, silicon oxide nanofibers can be used as reinforcing filler to increase the hardness, shear strength, wear resistance, thermal stability and chemical resistance of polyurethane coatings. And the optical performance test results indicate that the transmittance of the polyurethane coating decreased with increasing of silicon oxide nanofibers contents. However, the ultraviolet shielding effect of the polyurethane coating was improved to a certain extent with the addition of silicon oxide nanofibers.

The coarray techniques, e.g., nested and coprime arrays, can significantly improve degrees of freedom (DOFs) via constructing a so-called difference coarray, which enables underdetermined direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation within reach in the presence of unknown nonuniform noise. There are repeated lags in the difference coarray, which also contain useful statistical information. In this paper, the repeated lags are properly used for DOA estimation algorithm design in unknown nonuniform noise environments. Specifically, the number of repeated lags in the difference coarray is rigorously given. Then these repeated lags and unique lags are judiciously rearranged to form a pseudo data set, which is composed of linearly independent vectors. Based on the pseudo data set, we propose two algorithms for DOA estimation in the presence of unknown nonuniform noise. One is a searching algorithm without source number knowledge (SASNK), and the other is a multi-snapshot compressive sensing method (MSCS) with better DOA estimation performance. The MSCS also does not require source number information. Numerical results are included to showcase the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

Free surface electrospinning is a continuous electrospinning method for low-cost, massive production of nanofibers. The interjet distanceλis a critical parameter in free surface electrospinning, which directly determines the nanofiber production efficiency. In this investigation, we studied the interjet distance during free surface electrospinning based on electrohydrodynamic instability theoretically and experimentally, with special interest focused on the effect of surface tension and electric field intensity on the interjet distance. The experimental results indicated that the critical parameters affecting the interjet distance were the surface tension and applied voltage, which was in good compliance with the theoretical prediction. The relationship between interjet distanceλand surface tension followed an allometric law with positive exponential function, and the relationship between interjet distanceλand applied voltage followed an allometric law with negative exponential function. The present results can be used to understand the basic parameters which determine the interjet distance in free surface electrospinning.

This paper presents a new polarization sensitive array composed of a two-level nested subarray and an optimally nested subarray with orthogonal oriented antennas, and then proposes a correlation matrix reconstruction based estimation method for direction of arrival (DOA) and polarization state. The optimally nested array with N antennas can provide maximum degrees of freedom (DOF) of difference co-array (i.e., (N - 1)N + 1), which increases the aperture of the proposed array. However, both the difference co-arrays of the optimally nested subarray and between subarrays are nonuniform linear arrays (i.e., holes appear), and hence most existing methods fall to use all information received from the proposed array, resulting in estimation performance loss. Depending on the oblique projection (OP) operator constructed by initial DOAs from the two-level nested subarray, the proposed method first fills the holes to generate the virtual correlation matrix with increased DOF. Then the DOA and polarization state are estimated efficiently. The resulting DOAs can be regarded as the new initial angles for OP operator construction, to iterate aforesaid steps for estimation performance enhancement. The Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) and the computational complexity of the proposed method are provided. Simulation results are given to validate the effectiveness of the proposed array and the proposed method.

The age-related functional exhaustion limits potential efficacy of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) in treating cardiovascular disease. Therefore, rejuvenation of aged MSC in the elderly population is of great interest. We have previously reported that Erb-B2 receptor tyrosine kinase 4 ( ERBB4) plays a critical role in regulating MSC survival under hypoxia. The aim of this study was to investigate whether ERBB4 rejuvenates aged MSC and how ERBB4 enhances therapeutic efficacy of aged MSC in treating myocardial infarction (MI). Compared with vector aged MSC (aged-MSC), ERBB4-engineered aged MSC (ER4-aged-MSC) conferred resistance to oxidative stress-induced cell death and ameliorated the senescent phenotype in vitro. Four weeks after MI, the ER4-aged-MSC group exhibited enhanced blood vessel density, reduced cardiac remodeling and apoptosis with improved heart function compared with the aged-MSC group. Overexpression of ERBB4 caused an increase in phosphorylated v-akt murine thymoma viral oncogene homolog 1 (AKT), and phosphorylated ERK expression under hypoxia. ER4-aged-MSC secreted higher levels of angiopoietin, epithelial neutrophil activating peptide 78, VEGF, and fibroblast growth factor 2, and enhanced tube formation in HUVEC. The impact of ERBB4 on protein expression, proangiogenesis, cell behavior, and cytokine secretion was abolished by inhibiting PI3K/AKT and MAPK/ERK signaling pathway.-Liang, X., Ding, Y., Lin, F., Zhang, Y., Zhou, X., Meng, Q., Lu, X., Jiang, G., Zhu, H., Chen, Y., Lian, Q., Fan, H., Liu, Z. Overexpression of ERBB4 rejuvenates aged mesenchymal stem cells and enhances angiogenesis via PI3K/AKT and MAPK/ERK pathways.

Objective: To investigate the sexual activity of older adults, to understand their knowledge attitude and practice(KAP) regarding sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and to perform correlation analyses of STD symptoms in this population.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 585 subjects from counties in eastern China. Data was collected from unified questionnaires; descriptive statistics were used for demographic characteristics and sexual activity, which used student t test, to compare the different groups, and multivariate logistic regression analysis to identify the dependence of influential factors.Results: 24.62% of participants were reported as sexually active. The subjects still work and the main income from personal salary was higher than other individuals . Furthermore, when participants monthly income or expenses was more than 1000 RMB, they seemed to have a higher sexual activity. Gender and monthly income were dependent on influential factors related to sexual activity. 54.7% showed good awareness of STD, but only 7.96% of them consistently and correctly used condoms; moreover, 21.03% report to have previously suffered from any STD symptoms. Sexual behavior, use of condoms and commercial sexual behavior were dependent on influential factors of sexual activity.Conclusions: Sexual needs and sexual health of older adults should not be neglected, effective strategies should be drafted for such population.

BackgroundReports indicate that saffron originated from Iran then introduced into mainland China through the earlier established trans-Tibet trade routes in ancient China. Based to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, saffron functions by promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, cooling blood and detoxification, as well as relieving depression for tranquilization. Modern medical research has demonstrated several properties of saffron including antitumor, antidepressant, enhancement of immunity, cardioprotection. Notably, recent studies introduce that saffron has a neuroprotective effect, specifically in the treatment of Parkinson's disease in recent years. Nevertheless, the underlying molecular mechanism remains elusive so far. As such, this study aims to predict the underlying mechanism of saffron on Parkinson's disease through network pharmacology and molecular docking.MethodsA functional-based network pharmacology and molecular docking model was constructed for dissecting the underlying mechanism of saffron on Parkinson's disease. Based on the Traditional Chinese Medicine System Pharmacology database (TCMSP) and the literature reviews, the putative targets of Saffron were collected. Further, the interaction networks of Drug- candidate compounds targets-Therapeutic targets-Disease were mined using the Cytoscape software. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses were conducted and the String database was used to analyze the protein interaction network. Finally, Molecular docking was used to predict the interaction between the components in Saffron and key targets by MOE 2014.09 software.ResultsA total of 9 candidate compounds from saffron corresponding to 52 therapeutic targets of Parkinson's disease were identified. The neuroprotective effect of saffron in the treatment of PD was attributed to the strong binding between crocin (including crocin I and crocin II) as well as key targets including CASP3, IL6, and MAPK8. Additionally, the auxiliary neuroprotective effects might have originated from quercetin, kaempferol, isorhamnetin, crocetin, safranal, and picrocrocin because of their slightly weaker binding capacity to the key targets.ConclusionSaffron exhibits a synergistic effect via multiple targets and pathways in the treatment of Parkinson's disease and our systemic pharmacological analysis provides a basis for the clinical application and in-depth study of saffron.

The alternations in soil physicochemical properties caused by the reclamation of coastal tidal land can strongly affect the activities of soil extracellular enzymes. Soil extracellular enzymes are one of the most active organic components in soil ecosystem, which is involved in almost all the biochemical reactions. Determining the importance of potential influencing factors of soil extracellular enzymes and thus estimating their activities are important for clarifying the biological mechanism of soil carbon and nitrogen cycling. In this study, the multiple linear regressions (MLR) and random forest (RF) models were conducted to estimate the activities of soil amylase and urease activities using covariates, such as soil water content (SWC), electrical conductivity (EC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and soil organic carbon (SOC) as well as the soil bulk density (BD) and pH. The results reveals that the amylase activity of fishpond was significantly higher than that of other land use types, while the urease activity of rape land, broad bean land, and fishpond were notably higher than that of bare flat, Spartina alterniflora, and uncultivated land. The RF model indicated that the SWC and TN is the main variable affecting amylase and urease activity, respectively. The RF model performed much better than MLR model in estimating the soil amylase and urease activity as it revealed much lower error indices (MAE and RMSE) and higher R2 value. The superiority of RF model in estimating amylase and urease activity is due to its advantages to handle the nonlinear and hierarchical relationships between enzyme activities and covariates, and insensitivity to overfitting and the presence of noise in the data.

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) play an important role in diabetic vascular complications. A large number of studies have revealed that some clinical antihyperglycemics can improve the complications of diabetes by regulating the function of EPCs. Metformin can improve EPCs function in diabetic patients by regulating oxidative stress level or downstream signaling pathway of adenosine monophosphate activated protein kinase; Pioglitazone can delay the aging of EPCs by regulating telomerase activity; acarbose, sitagliptin and insulin can promote the proliferation, migration and adhesion of EPCs. In addition to lowering blood glucose, the effects of antihyperglycemics on EPCs may also be one of the mechanisms to improve the complications of diabetes. This article reviews the research progress on the regulation of EPC proliferation and function by antihyperglycemics.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of functional modulation of gap junctions (GJ) on the antitumor effect of adriamycin in breast cancer cells positive for estrogen receptor (ER). METHODS: The inhibitory effect of 0 to 24.0 μmol/L adriamycin on the surviving fraction of ER-positive human breast cancer MCF-7 cells and ER-negative MDA-MB-231 cells was assessed with MTT assay; Western blotting and immunofluorescence assay were used to detect the expressions of Cx43 total protein and membrane protein in the cells. A parachute assay was used to evaluate the function of the GJ in MCF-7 cells. The cytotoxic effect of adriamycin was observed in the cells treated with retinoic acid (RA) for enhancing GJ function, in cells treated with oleamide and 18-α- glycyrrhizic acid (18-α-ga) for inhibiting GJ function, and also in cells transfected with Cx43siRNA for Cx43 knockdown. RESULTS: ER-positive MCF-7 cells expressed a significantly higher level of Cx43 with stronger GJ function than ER-negative MDA- MB-231 cells. Adriamycin significantly inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7 cells (P < 0.01), and RA treatment further increased the cytotoxicity of adriamycin (P < 0.01) while oleamide and 18-α-GA obviously attenuated the cytotoxicity of adriamycin (P < 0.01). In the cells with Cx43 knockdown, the expressions of total Cx43 protein and Cx43 on the membrane were significantly reduced, the function of GJ was attenuated, and the cytotoxicity of adriamycin was significantly decreased (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: ER-positive breast cancer cells have stronger Cx43 expressions and GJ function than the ERnegative cells. The cytotoxicity of adriamycin against the breast cancer cells can be strengthened by enhancing GJ function and attenuated by inhibiting GJ function. Cx43 silencing inhibits the function of GJ to lower the cytotoxicity of adriamycin in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells.

Background DNA mismatch repair proficient colon cancer (pMMR CC) is the most common subtype of sporadic CC. However, the role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in pMMR CC carcinogenesis has not been fully elucidated. Methods In the present study, we conducted transcriptomic analysis of lncRNAs-mRNAs in five low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (LGIN), five high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (HGIN), four pMMR CC, and five normal control (NC) tissues. Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment pathway, and Co-Expression Network analyses were performed to elucidate the functions of lncRNAs and mRNAs as well as their interactions. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to validate five dysregulated lncRNAs in a large set of colon tissues. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were employed to evaluate the performance of the candidate lncRNAs. Results A set of 5783 differentially expressed lncRNAs and 4483 differentially expressed mRNAs were detected among the LGIN, HGIN, pMMR CC, and NC samples. These differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs were assigned to 275 significant GO terms and 179 significant KEGG enriched pathways. qRT-PCR confirmed that the expression of five selected lncRNAs (ENST00000521815, ENST00000603052, ENST00000609220, NR_026543, and ENST00000545920) were consistent with the microarray data. ROC analysis showed that four lncRNAs (ENST00000521815, ENST00000603052, ENST00000609220, and NR_026543) had larger area under the ROC curve (AUC) values than serum carcinoembryonic antigens, thereby distinguishing NC from pMMR CC. Conclusions Several lncRNAs play various roles in the adenoma–carcinoma sequence and may serve as potential biomarkers for the early diagnosis of pMMR CC.

Aging impairs the functions of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), thereby severely reducing their beneficial effects on myocardial infarction (MI). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play crucial roles in regulating the senescence of MSCs; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we investigated the significance of miR‐155‐5p in regulating MSC senescence and whether inhibition of miR‐155‐5p could rejuvenate aged MSCs (AMSCs) to enhance their therapeutic efficacy for MI. Young MSCs (YMSCs) and AMSCs were isolated from young and aged donors, respectively. The cellular senescence of MSCs was evaluated by senescence‐associated β‐galactosidase (SA‐β‐gal) staining. Compared with YMSCs, AMSCs exhibited increased cellular senescence as evidenced by increased SA‐β‐gal activity and decreased proliferative capacity and paracrine effects. The expression of miR‐155‐5p was much higher in both serum and MSCs from aged donors than young donors. Upregulation of miR‐155‐5p in YMSCs led to increased cellular senescence, whereas downregulation of miR‐155‐5p decreased AMSC senescence. Mechanistically, miR‐155‐5p inhibited mitochondrial fission and increased mitochondrial fusion in MSCs via the AMPK signaling pathway, thereby resulting in cellular senescence by repressing the expression of Cab39. These effects were partially reversed by treatment with AMPK activator or mitofusin2‐specific siRNA (Mfn2‐siRNA). By enhancing angiogenesis and promoting cell survival, transplantation of anti‐miR‐155‐5p‐AMSCs led to improved cardiac function in an aged mouse model of MI compared with transplantation of AMSCs. In summary, our study shows that miR‐155‐5p mediates MSC senescence by regulating the Cab39/AMPK signaling pathway and miR‐155‐5p is a novel target to rejuvenate AMSCs and enhance their cardioprotective effects., Inhibition of miR‐155‐5p, via the Cab39/AMPK signaling pathway, rejuvenates aged MSCs by regulating mitochondrial dynamics. Inhibition of miR‐155‐5p rejuvenated AMSCs and increased cell survival and angiogenesis in infarcted mouse hearts, thereby promoting the cardioprotective effects of AMSCs.

Cisplatin (CDDP) is the most effective chemotherapeutic drug against lung carcinoma. However, the emergence of resistant clones has severely limited its clinical application. We found that the cisplatin-resistant lung carcinoma cell line A549/CDDP had increased levels of the phosphorylated gap junction protein Cx43 and SRC tyrosine kinase, and low levels of total Cx43 protein and reduced gap junction formation. The SRC kinase inhibitor PP2 increased the expression of total Cx43 protein and enhanced cisplatin sensitivity, indicating that activated SRC kinase induces chemoresistance by decrease total Cx43 level. Furthermore, Cx43 gene silencing in the drug-resistant cell lines abrogated the sensitizing effect of PP2. Taken together, targeting SRC kinase by PP2 reverses cisplatin resistance by upregulating Cx43 protein levels, indicating a novel pathway of cisplatin resistance that may be amenable to therapeutic intervention.

Melt blowing is an industrial approach for producing microfibrous nonwoven materials utilizing high-speed air to attenuate polymer melt. The melt-blowing air flow field which is widely believed to be turbulence determines the process of fiber formation. In this study, the turbulent air flow field in slot-die melt blowing was experimental measured by hot-wire anemometer. The fluctuations of air velocity and temperature, the mean velocity and mean temperature were measured and analyzed; moreover, the relationship between turbulent air flow field and fiber formation in melt blowing was discussed and predicted. In the last part of this paper, the coupling effect of air temperature and velocity was studied tentatively, results showed that air temperature not only had an enhanced effect on velocity, but contributed to the fluctuation of velocity. This work shows that the fluctuating characteristics of air velocity and temperature have dominant effect on fiber motion and the evenness of fiber diameter.

Cerebral ischemia and reperfusion is a common pathophysiologic process, which is involved in stroke and brain trauma. Recent studies revealed that activating epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) ameliorates cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, however, the precise mechanisms remain to be illuminated. In this study, the neurological behavior was evaluated by Longa score. The infarct volume was performed by 2, 3, 5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining and the expression of p-EGFR, p-STAT3, connexin (Cx43), Bax and Bcl-2 were detected by Western blot. The neurological behavior and infarct volume were increased in rats with cerebral I/R injury. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) pretreatment significantly decreased neurological deficit and infarct volume. However, the antagonist of EGFR, AG1478 attenuated the EGF-induced reduction of neurological deficit and infarct volume. Moreover, the inhibitor of JAK2/STAT3, AG490 undermined the protective effects stimulated by activating EGFR in rats with I/R injury. In addition, EGF pretreatment increased the expression of Bcl-2 and reduced the expression of Bax and Cx43, and the effects were abolished after using AG1478 and AG490. These findings implicate that JAK2/STAT3 pathway plays the vital role in I/R injury protection from activating EGFR. And the neuroprotective effects may associate with inhibiting the Cx43 expression and the inhibition of apoptosis.

Northwest China has long suffered from serious water scarcity and soil salinization. It is important to reduce the impact of soil salinization on crop growth and improve water-use efficiency (WUE) through efficient utilization of the limited water resources. This study examined the effects of drip irrigation (DI) on the water and salinity distribution in soil planted with spring wheat, a representative crop in Northwest of China. An in-depth analysis of the leaching of salts by irrigation water and salt accumulation in the soil profile was performed. An irrigation experiment with four irrigation levels (315 mm, 360 mm, 405 mm, and 450 mm) was conducted to investigate the effects of the amount of irrigation water (AIW) on the physiology and growth, photosynthesis, yield, and WUE of spring wheat. The results showed that applying the irrigation water at 405 mm can improve the distribution uniformity of soil water and WUE. Due to the leaching of salts by irrigation water, an increase in the AIW resulted in a higher desalination rate, a lower salt accumulation rate, and a greater depth of desalination. When the AIW was 315 mm, 360 mm, 405 mm and 450 mm, the average depth of desalination was 40 cm, 43 cm, 47 cm and 50 cm, respectively. The plant height, aboveground biomass, leaf area, and wheat ear mass varied significantly with the AIW. As the AIW increased, the average plant height increased, while the aboveground biomass, leaf area, and wheat ear mass increased first and then decreased. The net photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, and stomatal conductance all increased greatly with increasing AIW, but excessive AIW could lower the net photosynthetic rate. The 405 mm treatment was the recommended irrigation level with the best wheat yield and water productivity at 7631.19 kg/hm2 and 1.88 kg/m3, respectively. Keywords: drip irrigation; spring wheat; spatial distribution; desalination; water use efficiency DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20181101.3775 Citation: Wang Z H, Liao R K, Lin H, Jiang G J, He X L, Wu W Y, et al. Effects of drip irrigation levels on soil water, salinity and wheat growth in North China. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2018; 11(1): 146–156.

To engineer bone tissue, it is crucial to design scaffolds with micro- and nano-sized architecture imitating approximate hierarchical structure of native bone, and afford desirable biological properties by introducing biocompatible polymers and bioceramics into the scaffolds. Here, a novel scaffold consisting of poly-3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate (PHBV)/polyaspartic acid (PAA) was fabricated by electrospinning and nano-hydroxyapatite (nHA) was deposited by calcium-phosphate dipping process for bone tissue regeneration. Characterization of the prepared nanofibers revealed the formation of definite nHA crystal, porous structure of membranes, improved wettability with nHA deposition and satisfied mechanical properties. Human fetal osteoblasts were cultured on nanofibers and experienced in vitro evaluations of cell proliferation, adhesion and mineralization confirming the non-cytotoxicity and biocompatibility of scaffolds. Cells proliferation rate and ALP expression on PHBV/PAA-nHA were 36.40% and 40.14% higher than on PHBV/PAA, respectively. The utmost significance of this study is introducing bioactive PAA-nHA on polymeric nanofibers to regulate and improve specific cells adhesion, proliferation and mineralization of osteoblasts. All results indicate PHBV/PAA-nHA nanofibrous scaffolds can be applied as biomimetic platform for bone tissue repairation with appropriate physico-chemical properties, osteoinductivity and osteoconductivity.

Superabsorbents, used in the removal of oils and organic solvents, play a extremely important role in environmental protection. There is an urgent demand for environment-friendly and high-performance absorbent materials with high selectivity for oils and organic solvents, and is also challenging. Herein, a facile and fluorine-free method to fabricate Polyacrylonitrile @ Polydimethylsiloxane (PAN@PDMS) coaxial nanofibrous aerogels (NFAs) was developed. The steps for synthesis included: coaxial electrospinning - freeze drying - in situ polymerization. The obtained PAN@PDMS NFAs displayed excellent absorption capacities for various oils and organic solvents (55.43–127.37 times of its weight), and efficient water-in-oil emulsions separation with high separation flux (1718 ± 45 L·m−2·h−1) and excellent separation efficiency (above 99.47 wt%). Particularly, the NFAs showed outstanding mechanical resilience (above 83% recovery after repeating 200 cycles at 80% strain) and could be reused by simply squeezing the oil/organic solvent out of it. More importantly, the PAN@PDMS NFAs showed good resistance against various chemicals such as acids and alkalis. Therefore, this study offers a facile methodology for the fabrication of NFAs that are expected to be promising candidate materials for practical oily wastewater treatment in environmental protection.

The impact of human interference on the ecological environment has attracted a significant amount of attention. In this study, hemeroby index (HI) was constructed to quantify the degree of human disturbance, and the relationship between HI and landscape pattern index was explored in a newly metropolitan area. The main objectives of this study were to analyze the temporal and spatial characteristics of landscape pattern and human disturbance in the process of urbanization of county-level cities in China, and to explore the relationship between the landscape pattern index and human disturbance under different disturbance intensity. The conclusions showed that: (1) the degree of human interference in the new area is on the rise, with a slow increase from 1980 to 2010, but since 2010, human interference has increased significantly. The diffusion of human disturbance intensity has obvious spatial directivity, spreading from east to west. (2) The impact of human activities on landscape pattern is shown as increasing fragmentation and increasing number of landscape types. With the enhancement of human activities, the heterogeneity and fragmentation of landscape types in the region reach their highest points. With the continuous increase of human activities, on a certain scale, the landscape types will gradually tend to be the same, and the same type of landscape patches will become one piece and tend to be integrated. This phenomenon is particularly obvious at the patch type level. (3) There is an inflection point value between human disturbance and landscape pattern index in landscape or patch type. On both sides of the inflection point value, the landscape pattern parameters and human disturbance have obvious opposite trends. (4) In the low interference range (1 ≤ HI &lt, 4), with the increase of human interference, more heterogeneous structures (shown in the increase of SHDI) are brought to the landscape, there is more landscape fragmentation (shown in the decrease of LPI, CONTRACT, and AI), and the patch shape and landscape structure tend to be complex (shown in the increase of LSI, SQP, ED, and other indexes), in the high interference range (4 ≤ HI ≤ 7), due to human intervention, the increase of LPI, contract, and AI indicates that intense human activities turn the landscape into a broken and scattered structure and tend to be consistent and homogeneous. LSI, SQP, and ED were negatively correlated with HI at this stage, indicating that with the enhancement of human activities, the complexity of landscape shape decreased.

Super-hydrophobic F-TiO2@PP membranes were developed from polypropylene (PP) non-woven fabric by in situ cross-linking polymerization of trifluorofluorooctyl methacrylate (FOMA) and sol–gel-derived titanium dioxide with vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES). Due to the formation of super-hydrophobic “coral”-like synapses on the filamentous surfaces of PP non-woven fabric, F-TiO2@PP membranes showed extremely high water contact angles up to 157° and capability of rapidly absorbing oil drops. The F-TiO2@PP membranes were also able to expel water from water-in-oil emulsions with robustly high oil permeate fluxes (up to 11,000 L m−2h−1 under gravity), water removing efficiency (up to 99.7%), re-usability and long-term stability even at the presence of surfactant and salts. Such superior performance could lead to potential applications in rapid collection and efficient purification of recovered oily organic components from waste liquids or accidental oil discharges in marine or continental situations.

Novel antibacterial nanofiber/cotton hybrid yarns was fabricated by an efficient combination of a stepped pyramid stage free surface electrospinning and traditional cotton spinning process. In this study, nanofibers loading as well as the morphology variation of the nanofibers resulted from polymer solution concentration and applied voltage changes were investigated. The results demonstrated that the higher solution concentration led to larger nanofiber diameter, and higher applied voltage increased the loading of nanofibers in the hybrid yarns. Moreover, it was found that resultant nanofiber/cotton hybrid yarns which was contained a small amount of Triclosan, possessed excellent antibacterial activity against both Grampositive Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative Escherichia coli bacteria. This novel method is promising for the large scale production of antibacterial nanofiber/cotton hybrid yarns for biomedical and antibacterial textiles applications

Melt blowing is a one-step approach for manufacturing microfibrous nonwovens. In slot-die melt blowing, a pair of air jets with high velocity and temperature is applied on the polymer and attenuates the polymer in to fibers. The fiber motion which was called vibration or whipping plays a crucial role in expressing the drag mechanism. In this study, an improved Lagrangian numerical approach was utilized to simulate the fiber whipping in melt blowing. The fiber whipping simulated in this study was significantly improved compared to other previous works. Meanwhile, the fiber diameter, fiber velocity and fiber temperature below the spinneret were simulated. The numerical simulation indicated that the most attenuation of fiber diameter occurred within 0.07 m below the spinneret; the fiber velocity increased gradually while the air velocity decreased rapidly along the spinning line, and the fiber velocity exceeded the air velocity where below a critical z-position; In addition, the fiber temperature decreased tardier than the decreasing of air temperature. This study illustrated that it was important to optimal design the air flow field which was supposed to fully utilize the air velocity and temperature together. In addition, the energy saving of melt blowing deserved to be taken into consideration.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been suggested to be biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of sporadic colorectal cancer. This study aimed to characterize the expression profile of lncRNAs in DNA mismatch repair-proficient (pMMR) early-stage colon cancer (CC). The microsatellite instability (MSI) status was examined by a multiplex PCR. The expression of lncRNA and mRNA was analyzed by microarrays. The differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs were determined by bioinformatic analyses and validated in 44 CC samples and 32 non-tumor colonic specimens by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). We found that 16 out of 67 CC had MSI-L CC and 7 with MSI-H. In comparison with that in five non-tumor colonic samples, microarray indicated that 1492 lncRNAs and 1639 mRNAs were upregulated while 1804 lncRNAs and 1073 mRNAs downregulated in four pMMR early-stage CC. Bioinformatic analyses revealed that the differentially expressed mRNAs were involved in the process of cell division, angiogenesis, apoptotic, differentiation, the PI3K-Akt/p53/TNF pathways and others. The co-expression lncRNA and mRNA networks indicated five hot spots with significantly high co-expression degrees. Further quantitative RT-PCR revealed that 4 out of 6 lncRNAs were significantly upregulated while the other 2 lncRNAs were downregulated in the CC. Stratification analysis demonstrated that 5 out of 6 lncRNAs were significantly associated with TNM stage and/or distant metastasis in this population. Differentially expressed lncRNAs were significantly associated with clinical features of patients with pMMR CC and may participate in the tumorigenesis of pMMR CC.

With a small number of elements in uniform circular arrays (UCAs), the performance of beamspace transformation (BT) based methods for 2D direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation in the presence of mutual coupling suffers serious degradation. The performance breakdown is associated with the residual term which is introduced by the BT. To solve this problem, a novel algorithm which modifies the beamspace data is proposed in this paper. Based on the estimated azimuth angles obtained by a UCA-RARE-like method and the estimated elevation angles obtained by a new searching method, the beamspace data is iteratively revised by removing its residual component. Thus, unbiased 2D DOA estimates can be obtained depending on the revised beamspace data. Simulation results are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and a comparison is made with results from existed methods.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of SRC kinase inhibitor PP2 on the invasion and metastasis of lung cancer A549 cells and explore its molecular mechanism. METHODS: MTT assay was used to evaluate the inhibitory effect of PP2 on the proliferation of A549 cells. Cell scratch and Transwell assays were performed to assess the invasion and metastatic capacity of A549 cells after treatment with 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 μmol/L PP2 for 24 h. Western blotting was used to detect the expressions of connexin43 (Cx43) and MMP-2 in the cells after small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated silencing or overexpression of Cx43; the changes in the cell invasion and metastasis in response to PP2 treatment after Cx43 silencing or overexpression were investigated. RESULTS: MTT assay showed that treatment with PP2 at 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 μmol/L significantly inhibited the proliferation of A549 cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Treatments with PP2 at 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 μmol/L for 24 h also concentration-dependently lowered the invasion and metastatic abilities of the cells (P < 0.05). At 4 and 8 μmol/L, PP2 significantly increased the expression level of Cx43 protein and decreased the expression level of MMP-2 protein. Overexpression of Cx43 significantly enhanced the inhibitory effect of PP2 on the cell invasion and metastasis, and Cx43 silencing significantly attenuated the inhibitory effect of PP2 (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: PP2 treatment can suppress the invasion and metastasis of A549 cells in vitro possibly by modulating the expression of Cx43.

Background & Aims. Aging is one of the key triggers of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Yet, the pathomechanism of the age-associated NAFLD is not fully understood. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), an ubiquitous coenzyme, has beneficial effects on aging. Here, we investigated the actions of NAD precursors nicotinamide riboside (NR) on the development of age-induced NAFLD. Methods. NR supplied food (2.5g/kg food) was applied to aged mice for three months. Changes of body weight, food intake, hepar weight and fat pat mass were measured. The serum concentrations of lipid content, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and NAD were determined by biochemical assays. Pathological assessment and immunohistochemistry analysis of hepatic tissues were used to evaluate the effect of NR on NAFLD development and inflammation infiltrated. Results. NR significantly reduced fat pat mass, lipid content and AST in aged mice, but didn't modify in terms of body weight, food intake, hepar weight and ALT in aged mice. Given normal chow, aged mice displayed decline of NAD concentration. In aged mice model, moderate NAFLD phenotypes, including steatosis and hepatic fibrosis (Masson's trichrome staining and TGF-β staining) were observed in liver. In addition, Kupffer cells accumulated and pro-inflammatory cytokines expression were more aggravated in hepatic tissues. Whereas, NR administration completely corrected these NAFLD phenotypes and inflammation infiltrated in liver. Conclusion. NR has benefits on age-associated lipid accumulation and hepatic steatosis, and the oral uptake of NR may be a promising strategy to prevent the progression of NAFLD.

In melt blowing, microfibrous nonwoven material is manufactured by using high-speed air to attenuate polymer melt. The melt-blown air jet determines the process of polymer attenuation and fiber formation. In this work, the importance of lateral velocity on the fiber was first theoretical verified. The lateral diffused characteristic of the air flow field in slot-die melt blowing was researched by measuring the velocity direction using a dual-wire probe hot-wire anemometer. Meanwhile, the fiber path was captured by high-speed photography. Results showed that there existed a critical boundary of the lateral diffusion, however, air jets in the x&ndash, z plane are a completely diffused field. This work indicates that the lateral velocity in the y&ndash, z plane is one of the crucial factors for initiating fiber whipping and fiber distribution.

The surfaces of polymer and interfaces between polymer and inorganic particles are of particular importance for the properties of polymers and composites. However, the determination of the properties of surfaces and interfaces poses many challenges due to their extremely small dimensions. Herein, polystyrene and polymethyl methacrylate thin film on silicon wafer was used as a model system for the measurement of the properties of the polymer near free surface and at the polymer-solid interface. Two different methods, i.e., nanoindentation using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the gold nanoparticle embedding technique, were used for these measurements. The results showed the elastic modulus of PS near the free surface determined by nanoindentation was lower than the bulk value. Based on contact mechanics analysis, nanoparticle embedding also revealed the existence of a lower-modulus, non-glassy layer near the free surface at temperatures below the bulk glass transition temperature (Tg). However, near the polymer-solid interface, the AFM nanoindentation method is not applicable due to the geometry confinement effect. On the other hand, the nanoparticle embedding technique can still correctly reflect the interactions between the polymer and the substrate when compared to the ellipsometry results.

Mesenchymal stem cell- (MSC-) based therapy is a novel strategy in regenerative medicine. The functional and regenerative capacities of MSCs decline with senescence. Nonetheless, the potential mechanisms that underlie their senescence are not fully understood. This study was aimed at exploring the potential mechanisms of fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) in the regulation of MSC senescence. The senescence of MSCs was determined by senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) staining. The morphology and the level of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) of MSCs were assessed by MitoTracker and Mito-Sox staining, respectively. The expression of FGF21 and mitochondrial dynamics-related proteins was detected by Western blotting. As MSCs were expanded in vitro, the expression of FGF21 decreased. Depletion of FGF21 enhanced production of mitochondrial reactive oxidative species (ROS) and increased the senescence of early-passage MSCs whereas inhibition of ROS abolished these effects. The senescent MSCs exhibited increased mitochondrial fusion and decreased mitochondrial fission. Treatment of early-passage MSCs with FGF21 siRNA enhanced mitochondrial fusion and reduced mitochondrial fission. Moreover, treatment of mitofusin2- (Mfn2-) siRNA inhibited depletion of FGF21-induced MSC senescence. Furthermore, we demonstrated that depletion of FGF21-induced mitochondrial fusion was regulated by the AMPK signaling pathway. Treatment with an AMPK activator, AICAR, abrogated the depletion of FGF21-induced senescence of MSCs by inhibiting mitochondrial fusion. Compared with MSCs isolated from young donors, those derived from aged donors showed a lower level of FGF21 and a higher level of senescent activity. Furthermore, overexpression of FGF21 in aged MSCs inhibited senescence. Our study shows that FGF21, via the AMPK signaling pathway, regulates the senescence of MSCs by mediating mitochondrial dynamics. Targeting FGF21 might represent a novel strategy to improve the quality and quantity of MSCs.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have shown beneficial effects in the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). Nonetheless, the biological properties of adipose-derived MSCs (ASCs) from patients with AAA (AAA-ASCs) remain unclear. This study is aimed at investigating the properties of cell phenotype and function of AAA-ASCs compared with ASCs from age-matched healthy donors (H-ASCs). H-ASCs and AAA-ASCs were studied for cell phenotype, differentiation capacity, senescence, and mitochondrial and autophagic functions. Cellular senescence was examined by senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) staining. Mitochondrial morphology was determined by MitoTracker staining. Despite the similar surface markers of AAA-ASCs and H-ASCs, AAA-ASCs exhibited altered multidifferentiation potential. Compared with H-ASCs, AAA-ASCs displayed enhanced senescence manifested by increased SA-β-gal activity and decreased proliferation and migration ability. Furthermore, AAA-ASCs showed increased mitochondrial fusion, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and decreased mitochondrial membrane potential. In addition, AAA-ASCs exhibited decreased autophagy level, upregulation of IL-6 and TNF-α secretion, and downregulation of IL-10 secretion compared with H-ASCs. Nonetheless, treatment of AAA-ASCs with rapamycin (an autophagy activator) dramatically reduced secretion of IL-6 and TNF-α and enhanced secretion of IL-10. In conclusion, our study showed that AAA-ASCs exhibit senescence phenomena and decreased cell function. Understanding the specific alterations in AAA-ASCs will help explore novel strategies to restore cell function for AAA treatment.

Introduction: Sixty-three patients with gastric phytobezoars were reviewed. Methods: forty-eight (76.2%) patients received endoscopic combined with chemical therapies and 15 (23.8%) received only chemical therapy initially. Fifty-one (81.0%) patients achieved complete removal (only chemical therapy 14/15), while 12 (19.0%) received further endoscopic therapies. Results: finally, 62 (98.4%) patients achieved a complete removal. Considering only patients with combined treatment as a first approach, treatment success was associated with a softer phytobezoar consistency (p = 0.023). Conclusion: in conclusion, most patients achieve a favorable outcome. Chemical therapy is useful in selected cases. Repeated endoscopic therapies may be needed in order to completely remove phytobezoars with a hard consistency.